Relevant Writing

The RAFT strategy helps teachers differentiate a lesson and allows kids to decide the type of writing they do for assignments.

Posted by

Ann S

August 26, 2015

This activity helps students make connections between the topic they are learning about and the real world. By choosing the role, audience, format and topic, students are connecting to their prior knowledge, making choices that they are interested in and creating a document that is “real”; one that humans use in everyday life.

Strategy summary:

Instead of assigning one writing task for every student to do, create a number of options where students can select the Role (perspective they will write from) Audience (who will read it) Format ( what will they write- an essay, letter. rap?) and Topic (the big idea) of the task. To learn more about this practice and see samples, go to NCTE's resource Read / Write / Think : Using RAFT Writing

How to:

Create a writing assignment that allows students to choose one or all of the following:

Role of the Writer: Who are you as the writer? A movie star? The President? A plant?
Audience: To whom are you writing? A senator? Yourself? A company?
Format: In what format are you writing? A diary entry? A newspaper? A love letter?
Topic: What are you writing about?

Commentary: This practice was originally created by Nancy Vandervanter, a junior high English teacher who participated in the Montana Writing Project.

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